Source: Santa Barbara Police Department
Within the last month, the Santa Barbara Police Department Narcotics Unit conducted an investigation involving suspected drug trafficking. Based upon that investigation, Detectives obtained a search warrant for the involved suspects.
On May 27, 2022, around 9:30 pm, Detectives, Officers, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Air Unit served a search warrant near the 3700 block of State Street. Narcotics Detectives identified two vehicles as being involved in this criminal activity. Law enforcement officers conducted a traffic stop on both involved vehicles and detained several suspects.
When Officers conducted a traffic stop on one of the vehicles, they contacted the driver, Viviana Martinez-Perez and passenger, Rachel Delgado-Garcia. Officers immediately noticed a semi-automatic pistol in plain view and easily accessible to Martinez-Perez. The occupants were removed from the vehicle and arrested based on probable cause. Inside this vehicle Detectives located 53 pounds of methamphetamine and 1 ounce of fentanyl.
The second vehicle, driven by Titan Nolet, with passenger Natali Ontiveros was also stopped in the area. Nolet was a wanted parolee out of Los Angeles County and Ontiveros was on active probation. Ontiveros was searched per her probation terms and Detectives located two loaded semi-automatic handguns inside her purse. Ontiveros had recently rented a local hotel room in the 3500 block of State Street. Detectives conducted a search of the room that yielded 11 ounces of heroin and other narcotics.
The street value of the narcotics sized was worth approximately $100,000. These arrests and discovery of illegal narcotics resulted in one of the largest drug seizures, if not the largest in the Santa Barbara Police Department’s history.
Viviana Martinez-Perez, a 38-year-old Bell Gardens resident, Charges: Possession for Sale of Fentanyl (felony), Transportation for Sales of Fentanyl (felony), Possession for Sale of Methamphetamine (felony), Transportation for Sales of Methamphetamine (felony), Conspiracy (felony), Possession of a Controlled Substance while Armed (felony).
Rachel Delgado-Garcia, a 25-year-old Los Angeles resident, Charges: Possession for Sale of Fentanyl (felony), Transportation for Sales of Fentanyl (felony), Possession for Sale of Methamphetamine (felony), Transportation for Sales of Methamphetamine (felony), Conspiracy (felony).
Titan Nolet, a 36-year-old Anaheim resident. Charges, Possession for Sale of Fentanyl/Heroin (felony), Transportation for Sales of Fentanyl/Heroin (felony), Possession for Sale of Methamphetamine (felony), Transportation for Sales of Methamphetamine (felony), Conspiracy (felony), Possession of a Controlled Substance while Armed (felony).
Natali Ontiveros, a 31-year-old Anaheim resident. Charges, Possession for Sale of Fentanyl/Heroin (felony), Transportation for Sales of Fentanyl/Heroin (felony), Possession for Sale of Methamphetamine (felony), Transportation for Sales of Methamphetamine (felony), Conspiracy (felony), Possession of a Controlled Substance while Armed (felony).
All arrestees were booked in the Santa Barbara County Jail, with bail set at $1,000,000.
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Where’s the person who was saying over and over last week that the SBPD doesn’t bust dealers? Keep up the great work! THIS is how we put a dent in the drug use. Focus on the supply!
Thanks to Bidens open boarder.
BDM – there is no “open border.” Do you all really believe no drugs crossed our borders under Republican presidents? This is something new to you?
Most accurate comment of the day RJ! You should come by more often, We’re in need of more fact based, solution oriented commentary that’s free from knee-jerk emotion based responses, MSM buzzword regurgitation, and straight up insults towards anyone who dares question or pushes back on the popular narrative.
Sacjon…”let’s make drugs cleaner??!” Wow. What a crock.
In all fairness RJ, Sacjon did offer a solution: to invent a new drug, as powerful as fentanyl but… ‘safe’…. that the masses could get high on (@ 5:39). Not well thought out, but technically an offered solution.
RJ you hit the nail on the head, thank you. May the voters of Santa Barbara who think otherwise take a look.
“We’re in need of more fact based…” no, YOU are in need of someone to pat on the back and hope desperately that they’ll return the virtual favor….. yuck
BASIC – I take it you never saw brick weed with mysterious white powder or mold or bird feathers in it? How about coke laced with fentanyl of all things? LSD with crank in it? Yeah, “what a crock” indeed coming from someone with clearly no understanding of street drugs….
The guys moving drugs were not homeless, but lets be honest- some of the homeless are consumers of volume. Nobody mules 53lbs of meth to SB from Bell Gardens without intending to sell it here
Basicinfo805, thank you for the kind words. I would comment more, but my comments have been restricted by the powers that be for a comment made a while back that was insensitive and therefore, restrictions were placed on me.
For the record, I hold no grudge or ill will on the decision made, we are a community and if the powers that be feel they had to restrict me, then so be it, it’s a part of the process, I accept it.
So the things I say, let me begin with a major differentiation I have to offer on the “houseless neighbors” term. It is a term I use in a euphanistic sort of way. I took that term from the radicalized movements here in Isla Vista that wanted to keep the squalid criminal encampments in the parks in perpetuity.
I will say that the term “houseless neighbors” does NOT in any way, shape or form represent the truly homeless. Those who do suffer from mental illness, that have undergone employment issues such as layoffs and such or their spouse ran off, whatever, those are truly homeless folks.
The “houseless neighbors” designation is dedicated to a particular demographic and anyone with any common sense and logic can see what demographic that is. They know how to differentiate, something emotional knee jerk responders cannot and will not do.
Take Isla Vista for example. We have our homeless folks. They are kind, polite, pleasant, they cause no problems, they clean up after themselves, they are welcome in our community, we help them however we can and in turn, they help out where they can.
Then there’s the “houseless neighbors” I speak of. They steal, they pollute, they commit assault on the weaker homeless folks, they are basically a huge source of problems.
As a community, we did rid our parks of this ilk, but sometimes one or two resurface, do their thing and end up getting arrested for their antics.
I have to add, during the usurpation of the the Sueno orchard, the west end open spaces, Anisq’ Oyo Park then People’s Park, these “houseless neighbors” hat the radicalized extremist movements supported threatened, abused, harassed and attacked the local homeless folks.
They even made some of them “pay rent” if they wanted to hang out in the parks, kind of a protection scam. The worst incident was when one of the homeless folks didn’t pay his “rent” to them. The “houseless neighbors” beat him severely, so bad in fact that he went back to his tent, in horrible pain, and OD’d.
So again, when I say “houseless neighbors” I am speaking of the lowest common denominator imaginable and I would NEVER put the average homeless person in that category.
But now to this actual breakthrough with our law enforcement and this bust. It is an absolutely fantastic turn of events! I am thrilled they got these thugs for a number of reasons.
Like I mentioned in the previous post about the east part of Goleta Beach. I have witnessed the drugs delivered, paid for and used by the “houseless neighbors” camped out in that parking lot. Before that, the west end was the place to see that, but like I mentioned, that got cleared out.
I am willing to wager that the drugs these thugs brought to town, they were going to the “houseless neighbor” hotspots. I mean seriously, why would they get a hotel on the 3500 block of State Street, just 0.3 miles away from the hotel that was housing a good portion of the “houseless neighbor” contingent? Not coincidence my friend!
Then again, go back to that bust during the height of the “houseless neighbor” issues of another couple of out of town players that got busted on Calle Real by what used to be Dodge City Guns.
This is in the heart of the area where a lot of the “houseless neighbors” like to frequent for a number of reasons, but it’s also where the drug thugs get a lot of their business. Not a coincidence.
If these drug thugs didn’t want to target the “houseless neighbor” demographic they would’ve gotten a hotel in Goleta or lower State Street. They didn’t. They’re not after a high class clientele, they’re after those that want to make drug use a continuous reality.
We saw some of them here in Isla Vista during the height of the encampment debacle. They would come to the encampments, visit a few tents, come out, get back in their cars then leave.
Soon after you would see the “houseless neighbors” come out of their tents in a stupor or acting erratically and as the drugs wore off then the fights would start.
So again, I say that my “houseless neighbor” designation has nothing to do with homeless folks. Another fact about a lot of homeless folks is they DON’T commit crimes. You can’t say that about the “houseless neighbors” in any way.
My comments are based on factual and real observation, eyewitness and personal experience with this ilk. Let’s just say the evidence is stacked against them.
Bottom line, the coppers made a great move taking these drug thugs off the streets, but they also put a ding on the drug supply that the “houseless neighbors” are reliant on. Congratulations SBPD and SBSO, you guys did a great deed!
Now we sit back and watch the “houseless neighbors” get restless because their indulgences have been curtailed. This is going to be interesting to say the least. I’m watching, Goleta Beach, here I come!
Absolutely the borders are wide open. Look a little deeper into this before stating they are not open. No Covid testing unless being vented the 1,000 getting by unknown are not being tested for anything. This is just one of many problems. What other country can you go to illegally get a ticket to where you want to go get free health care and a phone. None that I know if,
This article left me with some questions. Detectives obtained a SW (prior) to searching “near – 3700 State Street – [for] the involved suspects?” No statement an address was listed in the SW that was likely supported via a tried and true (confidential) snitch. Now for many, why wasn’t the address involved “near – 3700 State Street” identified? Be interesting to know the disposition of the search near 3700 State and if this search led to the two stops and hotel search.
I have to add a correction. I said all the thugs caught were from Los Angeles. That was incorrect, as one of them was from Anaheim (Orange County). Bell Gardens is in L.A. County, might as well just say L.A.
RYPERT – never pass up a chance to blame crime on the homeless, eh? What homeless drug dealers do you think operate with this amount of drugs, guns and cash? None. That’s who. Your obsession is getting concerning.
GIMLI – “Americans are hooked on drugs and that is where the problem lies.” The whole of humanity is. We have loved drugs and getting high since the first caveman went back for another mushroom. It’s in our history and our many cultures. Here, in North America though, yes, the Americans have the money for drugs and much are supplied by the countries to our south. BUT…. we will NEVER stop humanities love of drugs. That won’t happen. So, the answer is in the supply and the quality. Most drug deaths are unintentional and those are usually caused by the quantity or quality consumed. Let’s make drugs cleaner, regulated and provide alternatives, while at the same time cracking down on suppliers like this!
Think that through a few more steps first…
8:57 – From that word salad I presume you prefer that people stay sick and spread it to the community. Good idea.